Happy Halloween from Only Oilcloths! It’s pumpkin carving time!

It’s that time of year again! Trick or treating, dressing up your children and pets, face painting, scary films, parties, spooky food and perhaps most obviously, pumpkin carving!

Here at Only Oilcloths, we thought we would do some crafting and carve our own pumpkins this year.  If you haven’t already carved your pumpkin, then we have compiled some useful tips, inspiration and links.

We decided to be brave and freestyle our pumpkins but we found a really great website for templates – PumpkinPile. Take a look as there are so many patterns and stencils to choose from.

How to carve a pumpkin this Halloween!

OK, so first things first – choose your pumpkin wisely! You want one that’s a reasonable size and shape as it will be much easier to carve. We did things a bit differently and cut a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin with a sharp knife. We then scooped out the insides. This is where it gets messy! It’s probably best to cover your table before you start as there is a lot of pumpkin flesh to contend with! We used the lovely Mulberry Tree Autumn Gloss Oilcloth on our table. We were quite untidy with our carving so it was a pleasure to have a wipe clean tablecloth!

Use a pen to draw your design onto the pumpkin and then carefully cut out your design with a sharp knife. Start at the centre and work your way outwards.

It’s now time to light your pumpkin! Pop a tealight or a battery powered light on the base of the pumpkin and now you can sit back and admire your work!

So here they are – our finished pumpkins! We hope that you like them and we have provided you with some inspiration.

One final thing, don’t waste the lovely pumpkin flesh. There are so many ways to use it and we have found some great recipe ideas on the BBC Good Food website.

Happy Halloween from all of us at Only Oilcloths!!